Over at public affairs website Flashreport, Flashreport contributing author Doug LaMalfa has weighed in on Mitt Romney's forty-point victory today in Nevada's Republican Party presidential nomintaion precinct caucuses. Romney recived a massive show of support from 52 percent of Nevada presidential caucus attendees which prompted LaMalfa, who is a three-term state legislator and agri-buisnessman, to opine on the Flashreport that the "Mitt Romney campaign has leveled the field in Nevada.  With over 50% of the vote to himself, it shows the momentum is picking up.  The McCain third place effort in this Western state, behind Ron Paul, has to be a concern to that campaign."

Doug LaMalfa declared that Romney "steamrolls" to victory in Nevada and even went as far as to state:

"Mitt Romney is fast becoming the conservative standard bearer for the Republican nomination."

Assemblymember Doug LaMalfa's enthusiasm for Mitt Romney - and LaMalfa's apparent deep and sincere concern for the political health of the campaign of Romney rival John McCain  - must be tempered with a healthy dose of reality that LaMalfa failed to reveal (accidentally, I'm sure):

Just Mitt Romney and Ron Paul were the two candidates that actually campaigned in Nevada, so it is not really earth-shattering that these two candidates finished one-two.

Here is a take from the Associated Press on today's Nevada Republican caucuses:

Alone among the Republican contenders, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas aired television ads in Nevada, and the libertarian-leaning Texan looked for his best showing of the campaign season.

Nevada offered more delegates but far less appeal to the Republican candidates than South Carolina, a primary that has gone to the party's eventual nominee every four years since 1980.

The Associated Press dispatch mentioned South Carolina, a state that also held an election contest today. As the report from the AP makes clear, the winner of the Palmetto State's GOP presidential primary has often led to the Republican Party nomination.

As Assemblymember Doug LaMalfa opines on Romney becoming the "conservative standard bearer" for the Republican Party nod, one must wonder why the nation's most conservative primary electorate (thus far) in South Carolina awarded Mitt Romney with a distant fourth-place finish.